Tuesday 8 July 2008

site tour


The garage with a bulldozer










the melt tank for our daily water







The weather blimp and its haven









The big house








The freezer










the freezer





The entertainment building









The sauna








The vehicles

Monday 7 July 2008

BBQ



Not really a Halley BBQ.











Thats one large bottle of JD











The BBQ team, me, christine and craig







Cathy and craig share a shot in the cold











Everyone took in.....

Independence day

July 4th celebrations.


The day began with a fancy dress parade with floats. Flags were flown. There was a mixture of people at the camp, 2 british, one canadian, one german and a french guy. The other 27 were from various places in american.






Each group made a float. This was the staff and there fraternity float.







This is the pink PIG where we move the clean water to the main building.







the girls taking a relaxing ride.







The boys trying to go faster on the back of skidoos.











dear oh dear what have we here!!!!!






Romans and countrymen.









wow its cold!!!








max and steve pulling a Doasis dummy.







The sat camp scientists dressed as things from the sea 








dancing the night away or at least trying to.







come on jake show me how it's done.





Science at summit


The SATCOM building where all the scientists gather to blog and write emails...oh and work up data.

The yellow tent next to it is the toilet. All materials are taken back to base to be disposed of.




The bally building so named after the manufacturers. This is where the two CIMS instruments are held as well as other small scientific instruments such as ozone, NO, spectro-radiometers and mercury measurements.  






A variety of instruments within the Bally building.








The air sampling bottles. These are filled with atmospheric air and then shipped to the USA where they will be tested for various atmospheric constituents.











Back of the NO instrument.













The mist chamber to measure soluble air particles.










This is what you have to do if you are a canadian (sorry tara!!!!) or fancy doing some snow sample

Sunday 6 July 2008

Summit Greenland



The C130 with engines running ready for take off. Never stops for more than an hour to unload and pick up and the engines are never shut down.






The base from afar.








The big or blue house. Mainly a kitchen and canteen area which can seat about 50 people.







Rest of the base.








The main toilet block, his and hers.









Sleeping accommodation.







A game of snow golf. Seven holes. This one in between the bunkers (toilets).







The pro golfers.








Bonnie and kitty take a ride in an electric buggie (bad boy)








Relax in the big blue house.







Friday 4 July 2008

Greenland and Kangerlussaq

Air greenland flight to Kangerlussaq.

Greenland has a population of about 60000 and is supported financially by Denmark. The main  airport is Kangerlussaq. Eighty one percent of Greenland is covered by ice and it is dependent   mainly on fishing and fish exports. The flight with air greenland from copenhagen was full, expensive and very comfortable and took about 4 hours. Arrived at the airport to heat, dust and no customs. Collected the bags and driven to the accommodation block. There were only about 10 people in the building at this point. Some staying for the next few months and others waiting for the next plane. 












Accommodation blocks. 
The red one is the 'kiss' (kanger international science support) building which is on two floors with cooking, washing and sleeping accommodation and the blue one is the greenland prison block, no doubt a low level security prison since the inmates get out of the building for short periods. 











Go south to the antarctic and get bitten by a fir seal, come north to Greenland and get bitten by mosquitos. The right eye swelled up after being bitten and stayed so for a couple of days. Rest of the body was well covered up so only a few bites since they were able to get through thin layers of clothing as well. No peace.











Dirt track to the glacier. Most of the roads are dust covered and driven mostly by 4x4 although there are only 3 roads extending for a maximum distance of 30km from Kanger even though it is the international hub with 500 residents and only one nurse. Most people fly in and then onto other destinations within the country.



A 7 hour round trip dirt road cycle ride to the Glacier. The soft sand in places made it hard work at times but it was a beautiful bright and sunny day.






A bench rest after the first leg of the cycle trip. Looked like a nice place to lie down and catch a few rays but the mosquitos came and so it was time to get back onto the cycle and start again. They are everywhere.






Three american hercules on the runway. One of them took us to summit on the Greenland ice cap. The flight lasted about 3 hours. The views were amazing. See below.







start of the ice sheet.








snow covered mountains.